You Blog for a Living?

“So, what do you do for work?” “Wait, you ‘blog’ for a living?” “How is that a job?” “What do you even do?” “Sooo, like, did you study blogging in school?”

I actually get these questions a lot. I got one of them yesterday, so it sparked my inspirational side and led me to write this specific blog post that’s been in the back of my mind for awhile.

To answer the question(s) in short (because I know a lot of you are probably just as confused as some of the other people who ask me these questions), I am a blogger, influencer and style expert. But that’s the pretty, well-rehearsed, concise, very broad answer. To fully explain ‘what I do for a living’, my job title is something along the lines of — a freelancer in the creative industry, who is a fashion & lifestyle blogger (or influencer, as they call it these days), wardrobe stylist, social media manager (for my personal brand along with 3 other brands’ platforms), trend forecaster, writer, fashion buyer (another brand I work with), project manager, brand affiliate/ambassador, model, creative director for my own brand and PR agent (for myself). Shew, good thing I came up with that ‘pretty & concise’ answer because that would be a mouthful if I had to explain the long answer every time I got asked one of the questions listed above!

Blogging as a career is still fairly new to many areas in the world, even here in the U.S., so I understand why people seem so confused when I explain to them what I do for a living. However, with the majority of the world spending a massive part of their days on social media and online, most marketing tactics for brands are transitioning over to online advertising versus print media – which most of us have already noticed this change. But to get even more specific, many companies are turning to bloggers and influencers online, who align with their brand’s style and aesthetic, to help advertise their products & grow overall brand awareness. Many larger companies, such as Nordstrom, have been partnering with influencers for awhile now as a large part of their advertising efforts. Smaller, local boutiques and businesses are now starting to realize the amazing benefit of this marketing practice, so they, too, are jumping on board. Think about it … it’s much simpler (and in the long run, cheaper) for a company to pay one well-known blogger to provide professional photos, market the products online and on social channels, spread the brand awareness, etc. than to hire a set of professional models, a photographer, a hairstylist, a makeup artist, a studio for the photo shoot, a wardrobe stylist, an onset assistant, etc. This is one of the major reasons that brands are switching gears and focusing on the influencer market now more than ever before — and of course the large following of consumers that see the bloggers’ posts is a definite plus!!

However, some of the top tier bloggers/influencers (with 100K-1M+ followers on social media, for instance) are not offering this service for free. Not even close, actually. Try anywhere from $1000-$20,000+ for one Instagram post mentioning the brand & tagging their handle. Yeah, you read that right. When I first read that statistic in a recent article (Aimee Song & Danielle Bernstein being two of my favorites mentioned in the article – I’ve been following them for over 5 years now, woah!!), even I was shocked – and I’m in the industry. So I totally understand why your mouth is dropped right now if you have never heard anything about this whole blogging world. 😉 And that price doesn’t begin to include the blog post and other social media posts that often come along with the IG post. It’s still really interesting to me to see where fashion/lifestyle blogs started not too long ago and where they are now. Talk about some inspiration and motivation!

Overall, I chose this creative, freelance route because I love all of the individual ‘jobs’ that I listed at the beginning of this post. I love having multiple job titles that make up my career path! I wake up each day knowing that it’s going to be exciting and different from the day before. There may be days when I sit at my desk for consecutive hours and get to relax while I write about my passions and enjoy my morning coffee, and then there are other days when I have meetings, styling appointments, and photos shoots where I get to channel (& challenge) my inner hustle. Each of the jobs that I had after studying fashion merchandising in college have led me to where I am today, and I couldn’t be more grateful for the knowledge, challenges and lessons learned that helped get me to this point. I was just telling Teej the other day that I’m so beyond thankful that I get to wake up and do this everyday. I still have to pinch myself – cheesy, but true. I guess I never knew what it was like to have a job that I actually loved and looked forward to every Monday — until now. To me, all of this isn’t a job. It’s my passion, and I’m just thankful that my passions and my career path all aligned. To God be all of the glory because there’s no way I would have even taken a chance at all of this without His push, encouragement & support! AND a huge thank you to all of you readers who support love ‘n’ labels and allow me to chase my dreams and continue inspiring others.

To wrap all of this up, I want to share a message with all of you out there who may not have a clue what you want to do with your life after college (it’s okay – a lot of us didn’t & sometimes, dreams change). Or perhaps you’re working that 9-5 desk job (miserable) when you would rather be chasing after your dream job … I say go for it! If you’ve prayed about it and God has it still weighing heavy on your heart, take the leap of faith. With confidence, passion, determination, hard work and God on your side, great things are bound to happen! Make the first move and then be patient and enjoy the journey. Stay confident, yet HUMBLE, and never stop learning. Don’t worry if you feel that you want to have more than one job title – that’s perfectly okay. And NEVERNEVER NEVER settle until you are genuinely happy!!

Thanks so much for stopping by – time for us to go rule the world, ladies 😉

6 comments

Thank you for writing this! As a “9-5″er myself, I’m currently putting together a blog so that one day I don’t have to rely on a salary! Plus blogging is WAY more my style than my corporate marketing job 🙂 I think most people are more efficient when they are their own boss! Thanks for the post!

I agree with this on so many levels! You definitely have to follow your heart and take that leap and then you will be SO much happier in your day-to-day work life. Prayers to you on your journey! You got this 🙂

Just wanted you to know that I read this post whenever you first published it, I follow you on insta, and it inspired me. I finally took the leap to start my own fashion blog and I’m working towards growing it!
Love your posts, you’re one of my favs ,
Ara

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MEET PEYTON

Hi beautiful! I'm Peyton, the founder of love 'n' labels. On this blog, I aim to inspire others through daily outfits, personal stories, beauty and styling tips. LNL is the destination for fashionistas with big-city style (on a real girl's dime), who love to mix both high and low-end pieces. Thank you for stopping by - I hope you'll stay awhile!

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